Heuzenroeder tops GB3’s Monza practice as Raber and Chi join grid

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Xcel Motorsport’s Patrick Heuzenroeder was fastest in practice for GB3’s season finale at Monza, which was split into two 45-minute sessions.

The 22-car field featured the returning August Raber at Argenti Motorsport with Prema, who had made his debut at Silverstone earlier in the season and had a best finish of 13th, and series newcomer Newman Chi at Hillspeed.

Chi is a single-seater rookie who came fifth in Italian Formula 4 and ninth in F4 Middle East this year, is currently 13th in E4 and has already got experience of higher level machinery with two Formula Regional European Championship outings.

Rodin Motorsport’s points leader Alex Ninovic was first to set a representative laptime in FP1, with Hillspeed’s debutants Maxim Rehm and Chi then bringing the pace down into the 1m45s.

Xcel’s Kabir Anurag was next to the top with a 1m44.992s, before being pipped by Heuzenroeder. Ninovic lowered the pace to 1m44.388s a minute-and-a-half later, and improved by a further 0.345 seconds 16 minutes in.

The next changes at the top came in the final 10 minutes, with Heuzenroeder and Ninovic trading fastest laps. It was Heuzenroeder who was on top at the end, a 1m43.583s putting him 0.119s ahead.

Anurag, JHR Developments’ Noah Lisle and Rehm were split by 0.04s, with Anurag 0.455s off the pace in third, and Chi completed the top six. A second covered the top 13.

Hillspeed’s Lucas Fluxa was on top early in FP2. Rodin’s Gianmarco Pradel was first to lap sub-1m46s, with Anurag edging ahead of him by 0.019s. He was in first place for 20s before Ninovic posted a 1m45.227s, then moments later team-mate Abbi Pulling crossed the line 0.032s faster than him.

She only had four seconds on top before Pradel broke into the 1m44s, and his benchmark stood a little longer.

Lisle set a 1m44.828s to go quickest by 0.098s nine minutes into the session, with Rehm making use of his slipstream to set a 1m44.331s straight after.

That lap proved tough to beat, with Ninovic the only driver able to do so. He managed to outpace Rehm by 0.01s, and set his lap approaching the session’s halfway mark.

With his penultimate lap, Chi got within 0.092s of Ninovic. Xcel’s Jack Sherwood and Heuzenroeder were next up, 0.142s and 0.204s behind respectively, with Lisle and Pradel also less than 0.3s off the pace.

Elite Motorsport’s Isaac Phelps and Velocity Racing Development’s Rodrigo Gonzalez were the only drivers to set personal bests in FP2.

Free practice results